Having occupied various executive positions within the airline industry in Europe, Rodrigue Trano is now currently based in Vietnam where he officiates as regional sales manager for Asia Pacific at BAA Training Vietnam.
When he is not flying in Asia, Rodrigue is leveraging his extensive aviation knowledge and experiences through articles for AeroTime.
Even within aviation circles, the name COMAC might raise some skeptical eyebrows. It is perhaps telling for this quiet Chinese giant, accustomed to a step-by-step, off the radar and methodical approach to aircraft manufacturing.
So, what’s COMAC?
COMAC (Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China) was officially formed on May 11, 2008, the product of a joint effort from various Chinese companies and institutions: (Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), Aluminum Corporation of China, Baosteel, Sinochem, Shanghai Guosheng Corporation and the SASAC (which manages Air China, China’s flag carrier). COMAC is therefore more akin to a conglomerate, a la United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) in Russia, which in turn encompasses famous names such as Ilyushin, Tupolev or Sukhoi. As such, COMAC regroups all China’s aircraft manufacturing capacities through 13 different companies, military and civilian alike and is government-owned.
This article will focus on the recent civilian developments coming from COMAC, from its humble origins to the ambition of challenging the familiar Airbus/Boeing duopoly.
Humble beginnings
While its incorporated history is fairly recent, its roots can be traced back to 1951, when one of its major shareholder companies, AVIC, was founded under the Soviet-influenced name “Aviation Industry Bureau”, belonging to the Ministry of Heavy Industry. Part of the People’s Republic’s strictly planned economy, the bureau was tasked with copying several military aircrafts under license from USSR which were, in turn, produced by various Chinese companies (Chengdu, Shenyang, Xian). As an example, Chengdu produced more than 2,400 J-7 fighter jets, a license-built version of the famous Soviet MiG-21.
Up until the 1980s, the PLAAF (People’s Liberation Army Air Force, the Chinese air force) was the main customer of the various Chinese aircraft manufacturers and, with the country still very much in development, there was little to no incentive for the domestic industry to focus on civilian designs. Moreover, the vast majority of the Chinese population was virtually excluded from travelling by plane, which was restricted only to the most senior officials of the Chinese nomenklatura or the few foreigners visiting the country.
However, China’s gradual isolation, following the Sino-Soviet split starting in the late 1950s, led to a focus being put on self-sufficiency at every level of the economy, including aviation. While the sixties and seventies were periods of great stagnation, if not full-on regression (the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution), the late seventies/early eighties reforms period opened a new chapter for the Chinese aviation history.
In this regard, President Nixon’s visit to China in 1972 marked both the end of China’s isolation on the world’s stage, and the start of the country’s impressive emergence on the aviation scene. With fresh foreign investment flooding the special economic zones, fast growing economy and incomes, the airline industry started to boom. The CAAC (Civil Aviation Administration of China) was, at that time, China’s flag carrier, as well as the country’s CAA. Its monopoly was broken-up in 1988 and led to the formation of six different airlines:
- Air China, China’s flag carrier, based in Beijing, the direct successor to CAAC
- China Eastern Airlines, based in Shanghai
- China Southern Airlines, based in Guangzhou
- China Northwest Airlines, based in Xi’an, and later merged into China Eastern
- China Northern Airlines, based in Shenyang and later merged into China Southern
- China Southwest Airlines, based in Chengdu and later merged into Air China
Competition meant that each carrier needed to modernize its fleet, to outpace and overtake competitors. Indeed, prior to the introduction of modern jetliners, the Chinese airlines were exclusively flying Soviet-designed aircraft such as the Antonov An-2 biplane, the Ilyushin Il-18 turboprop or the Tupolev Tu-154 jetliner, among others. While those three models would prove somewhat adapted to the Chinese market, thanks to their simplicity and ruggedness, they had neither the range nor the capacity to match the ever-increasing demands of this fast-booming market.
Boeing and Hawker Siddeley were the first foreign manufacturers to achieve a substantial footprint on the Chinese aviation market, with their B707 and Trident aircraft respectively, at CAAC and later Air China. The then newly formed Airbus would soon follow suit with their A300 and A310 widebody aircrafts with China Eastern.
But what about Chinese-designed and built airliners?
Following the delivery of Boeing B707 aircraft in the early 1970s, the Shanghai Aircraft Manufacturing Factory quickly designed the Shanghai Y-10, a retro-engineered version of the B707. While this project never reached the production stage due to a lack of a suitable, locally produced engine, and with only three prototypes built, it can however be considered as the starting point of COMAC and China’s recent aircraft manufacturing history.
Shanghai Y-10 prototype at COMAC – Wikipedia
The next stage of COMAC’s rise was to be humbler, yet decisive. Indeed in 1987, SAIC (Shanghai Aviation Industrial Corporation, now COMAC) struck a deal with an ailing McDonnell Douglas to assemble 40 MD-80/82/83/90 aircraft kits in China. Eventually, 35 aircraft would be produced at the Shanghai factory. McDonnell Douglas, a legendary name in aviation worldwide, would, however, soon go bankrupt and merge with Boeing in 1997, marking the end of the partnership with SAIC.
Current product lineup
This short experience proved instrumental in the development of China’s first locally designed and produced modern jetliner, the COMAC 909 (previously called the ARJ-21). COMAC indeed designed a more modern regional jet, using a shortened MD-80/90 fuselage mated to a supercritical wing (designed in Ukraine by Antonov) and GE CF34 engines, the same found on Embraer E-jets E1 and Bombardier CRJ aircraft.
COMAC C909 (ARJ21)
The project was started in 2002, the first prototype assembled in December 2007 and the first flight occurred in November 2008. The ARJ21 was certified by CAAC in 2014 and started flying commercially in June 2016 with Chengdu Airlines, 14 years after development started.
This rather long development timeline can be explained by the CAAC’s relative inexperience in certifying domestically produced aircraft, as well as several design changes that occurred during development. It is also speculated that one of the COMAC C909 program’s goals was to gain experience in the certification process at a lower risk, with the design being based on a proven MD-80 platform, before transitioning to more advanced projects.
Up to November 2024, 28 airframes have been delivered to 10 different customers, among which the Chinese Big Three (Air China, China Eastern, China Southern), Chengdu Airlines (launch customer) and TransNusa from Indonesia, so far the only foreign customer.
Due to its small capacity, dated technology, lack of European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) or Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approval and superior competition (Embraer, Airbus, ATR), the COMAC C909 has only amassed 345 orders, the majority of which are politically motivated orders for Chinese carriers. But the C909 will have paved the way for the next step in COMAC’s rise to the world’s stage: the C919.
COMAC C919
If the C909 was a first, sketchy, attempt at creating a burgeoning aviation industry in China, the C919 was to become COMAC’s coming of age.
Designed from the ground up to rival Airbus’ A320 and Boeing’s B737 families, the C919 is a significant step forward in terms of technology. While not as innovative as contemporary designs, such as the Airbus A220 (formerly Bombardier CSeries), the Yakovlev MC-21 or the ill-fated Mitsubishi SpaceJet, the C919 incorporates same generation engines (CFM LEAP) and can rival first generation Airbus A320 and B737-800 aircraft. It is interesting to note that, unlike its European and US rivals, the C919 comes in only one variant/fuselage length for the time being, with a seating capacity matching those of the abovementioned aircraft.
Since the first aircraft was delivered to China Eastern in 2022, COMAC has delivered a total of 12 airframes to the Chinese Big Three, including four in 2023. For 2024, the Chinese manufacturer holds ambitions to close the year with at least seven deliveries for the C919. For context, Airbus delivered 48 Airbus A320 per month on average in 2023 across four FALs (Final Assembly Lines) – Toulouse, Hamburg, Mobile and Tianjin. The European manufacturer expects its monthly delivery rate to reach 65 aircraft in 2024 and up to 75 by 2027. The Boeing 737 MAX’s monthly delivery rate is currently FAA-capped at 38 aircraft. With orders for more than 1,000 aircraft for the COMAC C919, the Chinese company’s priority should be a gradual ramp-up to increase delivery rates over the coming years. However, COMAC has been very conservative and careful over the course of the program and did not rush to ensure safety and reliability.
COMAC’s portfolio now includes a regional jet (C909), a narrowbody (C919) and recently launched its first widebody program, the C929. The latter was originally supposed to be a joint effort between COMAC and Russia’s UAC under the name CRAIC CR929. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and the subsequent sanctions applied to the Russian Federation, COMAC decided in June 2023 to continue development of the renamed C929 on its own to avoid risking sanctions on the aircraft later. The aircraft is still very much in the design phase and assembly of the first components is not expected before 2027. In terms of design, the C929 broadly resembles the Airbus A350 and the Boeing 787 and is aimed at competing with those aircraft. One of the biggest question marks over the project is the engine that will be placed under the C929’s wings.
COMAC C929
China does not currently produce any turbofan in the same class as the-Rolls Royce Trent 1000/XWB or the General Electric GEnx and it is anticipated that either or both of those engines will be selected before an indigenous design is ready. Performance-wise, and from readily available information, it does seem the C929 falls short of its Western rivals, notably in the payload/range department, but that could be a conservative estimate extrapolated from the current lack of engines. It seemingly didn’t prevent Air China, China’s flag carrier, from becoming the launch customer for the type in November 2024, as AeroTime recently reported.
Concluding thoughts: a duopoly breaker?
Now what’s next for COMAC? There’s no shortage of challenges awaiting the Chinese manufacturer. In the near-term future, COMAC will have to digest a steep learning curve on the supply-chain side of the manufacturing process to address demand and increase delivery rates. At the same time, China’s debated neutrality towards Russia, and the return of Donald Trump as the next US president, could see the C919 program becoming a collateral victim of American tariffs, as 3/5th of its components is US sourced. Paradoxically enough, COMAC will need to work closely with Western authorities to have its C919 and C929 certified, as it ambitions to become a global player rivalling its much-established competitors.
With the withdrawal of Lockheed from the civilian market in the 1980s, the bankruptcy of Fokker in 1996, the merger of McDonnell Douglas with Boeing in 1997, the demise of Bombardier Aviation in 2019, the commercial airplanes market has virtually shrunk to an Airbus/Boeing duopoly for the past 25 years with Embraer and ATR in a different league. Therefore, it can be said that COMAC is the first real challenger to the duopoly, a welcome new entrant that will push the European and US manufacturers to be more innovative.